


The Right Lane

by capitainpistol



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015), Superman - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-18
Updated: 2016-11-18
Packaged: 2018-08-31 15:20:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8583469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/capitainpistol/pseuds/capitainpistol
Summary: Lois was a cub reporter back when Jimmy was fetching mail for the City Beat. They were part of that same half a dozen unspoken favorites of Perry White. The ones he’d scream at the loudest. The moment Lois learns Jimmy - James - is the Guardian, she hops a flight over. Lois POV. Post-Supergirl 2X05,





	

The text was brief and very Lois Lane.

_That was tou, wasn’t it?_

Attached: a blurry photograph of the Guardian, the one that had gone viral the last few hours. A few years in internet time.

James texted back: * _you_.

Lois Lane gave old school screw yous. She didn’t text back anything at all.

He got a call from a guy who knew a guy who knew someone who worked at Metropolis International who saw Lois boarding a red eye to National City.

She arrived long before the staff meeting, at the crack of dawn, sauntering into the empty office with such cool confidence James became Jimmy again and instinctually moved out from behind the desk.

Lois Lane was just under forty and still rocking the sleek late night Metropolis look. Her all black ensemble seemed almost deliberately opposed to everything in Cat Grant’s white luminous office.

They hugged, both surprised by the calming it effect it had, to be around someone who knew them at their scrappiest. 

Lois was a cub reporter back when Jimmy was fetching mail for the City Beat. They were part of that same half a dozen unspoken favorites of Perry White. The ones he’d scream at the loudest. The ones he got drunk with on New Years Eve. Who cheated at their weekly poker games.

Lois tapped James on the back just a little harder than she might have any other time. James laughed it off, but she caught him wince.

“Not so much fun without super powers,” she joked.

“No, it’s still fun.”

Lois threw her huge dark bag on the white couch and leaned against Cat Grants desk, staring at the massive wall of televisions.

“You’d think she was over compensating for something,” she said, remembering Cat fondly though they never had fond times. 

“Don’t tell me you’re hopeful you might see Cat again.”

Lois grinned, touching little things on Cat’s desk she was sure James only kept out of courtesy. “I’m always happy to see Cat.”

“I would pay to see that showdown,” said James. 

He made himself busy, collecting print outs, gathering copy to move from the main desk. Making an ass of himself, he realized too late. 

“I’m not here to scold you. Talk to me, Jimbo. Please tell me I get to scoop this drag of its Guardian.”

James appreciated the hits at Cat and Lois’s bid for the story, better to detract from the mess he was inviting into his life. 

“I’m a creative director now, Lois. Off the record. Got a drag to protect.”

Lois smiled. “Now we’re talking, Olsen.”

 

*

 

Lois sat down on the Helipad, facing the east where National City hadn’t stretched out its sleek gray skyscrapers yet. She watched for him through the yellow haze of early morning.

Clark’s sonic boom came from the south, and before she could squint to make him out, he was already in front of her with breakfast. 

Clark kissed her and sat with her for a quick early morning picnic.

Lois went for her favorites, updating him about Jimmy. How weird it was to keep saying James. How he still didn’t feel comfortable ordering people around.

"The more hopeless the alter ego, the more badass the superhero, huh." She could tell Jimmy's new mantle was also in Clark's mind, but they fell into a comfortable silence, enjoying each others company before the inevitable.

Lois didn't even mind the breeze. They could’ve been in bed.

“The wind’s picking up,” he said, combing strands of her hair behind her ears. “A storm coming from the Keys.”

He kissed her before she got in a mouthful of Egg McMuffin.

She pointed to the bright horizon. “It’s gorgeous today. Hey, where are you going? You just got here. Jimmy got tickets.”

Clark’s super hearing had picked up a faraway calamity. He was already off the ground, but he came back to give her another kiss. “Love you.”

Lois harrumphed, not appreciating that she had to decide between touching her boyfriend or holding on to her breakfast. “No, no, no… I didn’t get to see you this morn-“

“I love you. I promise I’ll make it up.”

At the third kiss he finally flew off.

“You’re terrible!” She called.

His voice called back, drifting on the strong winds. “I’ll see you tonight!”

 

*

 

Clark had gotten James coffee too, plus extra doughnuts and pastries. Half of them chocolate, the kinds she liked. The other half the kind James liked.

It wasn’t James she found on her return to the editorial offices. It was Kara Danvers.

Lois recognized her right away, She had that casual slouch down.

“If you’re looking for James, he’s in a staff meeting,” Lois said. 

“I’ll just leave these on his desk, then,” Kara said happily, that cheer Clark told Lois about beaming right out of her. 

Kara set her piece down and walked around Lois, something finally clicking.

Lois decided to give her a push. “He’ll be done soon. If he’s anything like Perry, he’ll want out of that office right away. I’m—“

Kara’s eyes popped. “Lois Lane. You’re Lois Lane. Of the Daily Planet.”

“Of Fort Sumner Falls, by way of Okinawa by way of Berlin. Kara, right? Clark’s cousin.” Lois shook Kara’s hand. “Of… Krypton?”

Kara nodded, cheeks bright. She whispered though they were alone. “By way of the suburbs.”

Lois smiled at the sturdy grip of this bright bowl of sunshine Kara Danvers, alias and alter ego, Supergirl.

“I can’t believe it’s taken us this long to meet,” said Kara, echoing Lois’s very thoughts.

“All that red tape we have to go through,” said Lois. “Red capes.” She handed over the bag of pastries, and Kara lit up even more as she laughed, if that was possible. “I hear you’re about to set yourself against a whole lot more. James told me you’re reporting now.”

Kara didn’t want to ask something cliché like did Lois Lane have any journalistic advice, but the question practically screamed inside of her. That wasn’t what came out though. “Lucy!”

Kara could fling herself into the sun right now.

Thankfully, Lois was full versed in Kryptonian eccentricities and promptly followed through her reputation as being the coolest person in a room. “Lucy, my sister Lucy?”

“I knew Lucy. She was around, for a while.” Maybe an embarrassing life-affirming quote would’ve been better, but some instinct prompted Kara to mention Lucy. Lucy helped her clear some things up, about life in general, choices to be made. She wanted to add all of that, but Lois spoke first. 

Try as she might, she couldn’t shake the inflection of mild disdain for her younger sister. “Was she?”

“She didn’t talk about that?”

“Lucy and I aren’t on what you call...”

“Good terms?”

“Talking terms. Not until I get on the right Lane, at least. Something she used to tease me about. I was always the right one, she was the wrong one. As if there is a point a to point b with sisters. I know she came to National City a few months ago, and then she left. I just figured she broke James’s heart again. They had that pattern back home.”

Kara nodded, ignoring the phantom pains of her own guilt in all that. 

Lois sat on the edge of Cat Grant’s desk. Lucy had been the farthest thing from her mind, but her little sister had made an impression on Supergirl and whatever that meant was interesting to Lois.

A solidarity between younger siblings, perhaps.

“Are you busy today?” She asked Kara.

“I’m—“

“Kara,” said James.

“That she is,” said Lois.

James and Kara shared a long glance that did not go unnoticed. 

The office was coming alive, everyone returned from the staff meeting. The tall glass walls let the curious peak in. In less than a minute everyone knew Lois Lane was in a meeting with acting chief James Olsen and newly promoted reporter Kara Danvers.

Kara heard several flashes go off.

Lois, used to a crowd, was entirely focused on the unresolved tension in the air in front of her.

She gathered her things. “Clark bailed on us. We have one free ticket for tonight. I’m stealing your ace reporter for the day. Everybody cool?” 

“Sure you want to spend the day with Lois Lane?” James asked Kara.

Kara was still trying to process the last five minutes.

Lois patted James on the arm exactly where he would hurt. “Doing good, Jimbo. Don’t go Perry on us.”

“I’ll tell him you said that.”

“Please do. I gladly welcome beef with Perry.” His offices had glass walls, too, so everyone could see how pissed off he was at them. Lois filed this under a plus for Cat’s Scandinavian chic imitation. “Kara here was dropping off her piece. Thinking I might convince her to write for the Planet.” 

Kara’s cheeks turned red again. 

James beamed down at her. 

“Someday,” said James.

It was all very cute.

“I’ll meet you downstairs?” Lois asked Kara, answering the question by walking out before Kara could answer.

She left them alone, two big dumb adults awkwardly standing in the beating heart of the city, not the slightest idea of what to do with their own.

Lois remembered that feeling. It was awful. Seeing it from afar? Not so much. She couldn’t wait to be in the middle of that later tonight.

As she waited for the elevator, she looked around. 

White marble walls, white tiles, white panes, white everything. All that sterility and cyber minimalistic crap. She’d already given Cat a minus for it when she first arrived, but it was drastic enough in morning light.

Her day in National City was just getting started.


End file.
